STATCOUNTER

July 2016

I am member of Dollar Shave Club. If you haven’t heard of it, it is pretty much what you would expect from the name—for one dollar a month (plus two bucks shipping and handling), they send me a five pack of two-bladed razors. There are other options, like multi-bladed razors, moisturizers, and hair stuff. But the original concept was, simply, razors.

The original commercial, which launched the brand, featured the founder and was an irreverent, low production value, witty spot. How successful was this marketing idea, which basically took on the huge razor companies and their huge budgets?

As you might have heard, the company was sold to Unilever last week for 1 billion (yes, with a ‘B”), dollars. In cash. Though the founder and CEO, Michael Dubin, only stands to collect 90 million.

And though I am certain Mr. Dubin has never read my book, he is certainly confirmation that it is really true: All you need is a good idea. And I hope you are working on developing yours.

The buzzword, “ownership,” is floating around everywhere recently. And usually it means to take pride and responsibility in your actions.

But allow me to put it in a different context: no matter how far down the corporate ladder you are, I want you to take ownership of the business you work for. That is, I want you to think like an owner, not an employee. This makes a tremendous difference in how you approach your assignments, and the challenges you give yourself.

Example: You are a copywriter. You are given your strategy, and are told the parameters of what they are looking for. Since you are a really good writer, you come up with some remarkable advertising. But after you’ve come up with those ideas, why not step back and stop thinking about the creative problem from the perspective of a writer. What if you started thinking about your assignment as if you were the owner of the business that offered that product or service? Wouldn’t you spend even more time developing ideas, going even further outside your comfort zone, trying just about anything to build your brand? Hey, it’s your (not really) company, and no one is more passionate about growing it than you should be.

Recently my family had dinner in the Hamilton Park section of New Jersey. (Don’t giggle. Jersey City is one of the fastest growing cities in America.) As we were walking through the park, we noticed two things: Live music, and many people walking around with mini ice cream cones.

Sure enough, to celebrate a business anniversary, MilkSugarLove was giving away free mini sugar cones, with your choice of five flavors.

They were dispensing the goodies from a truck parked opposite their retail store. When it was my turn to order, after deftly stepping in front of my daughter, I stuck my head in the truck and asked why they were doing this. The answer was that they were celebrating their anniversary. When I asked why they didn’t have a sign on their store and the truck, the response was that they had saturated all the social media. And I am certain they had.

Except…What about all the people who would love to help them celebrate, but for whatever reasons aren’t into social media. Or might simply have missed all the tweets and postings. What would have been the downside of simply putting a sign on the truck explaining why they were handing out the free stuff? Or placing a poster in the window of their store?

If you didn’t know the reason for their generosity, it might simply be perceived as a gimmick to gain attention because business is bad—the opposite of what appears to be true— and as a desperate measure to attract new customers.

So by all means, when you have an event, spread the word far and wide. Social media is a great way to fill the forest. But don’t overlook your local neighborhood efforts.

How often have you waited for a better moment? You know, a better time to write the copy, fix the headline, select a strategy, and so on.

The truth, though, is that there are rarely better moments. There are different moments. There are even atypical moments. But there is always something. And you can waste a fair amount of time just sitting (or standing) around and waiting for the perfect moment. Waiting till it gets quieter in your office. Waiting till the coffee brews. Waiting for that last tiny piece of data that will make all the difference. (It probably won’t.)

From my experience, the better moment you are waiting for often turns into a worse moment. Your word processing app will go from being slow to crashing. The PDF you have to send ASAP has turned into a Jackson Pollock look alike. Your “save” key has suddenly become a “delete” key.

So, here’s a ‘something’ that might help: Do as much as you can as soon as you can. Just get it down. You can always change it, perfect it, edit it. No matter what, the deadline alarm will be ticking. Better to have something ready, even if it’s not your greatest effort, than to run a page that says, “Compliments of a friend.”